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Huawei Honor Bee – Best Smartphone of Huawei under Rs.5000 Range

Chinese manufacturer Huawei Technologies made another addition to their Honor Smartphone series this May 2015 with the India-exclusive Huawei Honor Bee. Like several other Smartphone competitors, Huawei has entered under Rs. 5000 segment with the compact 4.5 inch, Dual SIM phone the Honor Bee. The retail launch price in India of Huawei Honor Bee was Rs. 4999 but it is currently available under Rs.4499, with this price tag it does not seem to have a lot of competitors. Let’s have a deeper look.

Huawei Honor Bee Android Smart Phone

Huawei Honor Bee Price and Specifications

Design Features and Look

The device measures 129 x 66.4 x 10 (mm) which make it compact enough to fit in your hand conveniently. The rounded smooth edges and the durable polycarbonate back cover give it a decent and pleasing look. The Honor Bee comes under two color variants, white and the matte black. The 170 gram weight might be high on the other side.

Honor Bee has a 4.5-inch WVGA display with the usual set of three android touch buttons which does not have a backlight but provides a tactile feedback. On the right side, we get the volume control and the power/lock button keys having a metallic finish. On the top, we have a 3.5mm audio jack and a Micro USB port. At the bottom, we have the primary microphone. The loudspeaker has been housed at the back just below the battery and the removable back panel has an Honor branding below the camera. The overall build quality of the phone is good.

Display Specifications

Just like its other competitors, it has a 4.5-inch TFT touchscreen offering a resolution of 480 x 854 pixels at 218ppi pixel density and 16M colors. The touch screen allows multi-touch up to two fingers. With the screen ratio of 16:9 the icons are crisp enough with decent sharpness. The picture clarity of the device is amazing for this price segment. The device has fair enough viewing angles, but viewing under direct sunlight might be a little difficult owing to its reflective screen. The glossy touch screen is also prone to fingerprints.

Huawei Honor Bee HD Display

Above the display is the 2-megapixel front camera with the usual proximity and an ambient light sensor which enables auto brightness control. The Honor Bee lacks notification LEDs.

Platform and Operating System

The Honor Bee runs on the Android OS v4.4.2 (KitKat) with the Huawei skin Emotion Lite 3.0 User Interface. It might disappoint the Android fans that the device is not yet upgradeable to the higher Android versions, though an update has been promised for the device. Its competitor Motorola Moto E (2nd Gen) already runs on the latest Android 5 Lollipop which puts the Honor Bee in jeopardy.

Nonetheless, it has been loaded with the robust Quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A7 CPU, Mali 400MP2 GPU and runs on the Spreadtrum SC7731 chipset. These are a fair set of specification in this price range and are at par with its competitors.

Performance and Storage

The Honor Bee has 1 GB of RAM with which the combination of the Cortex A7 ticking at 1.2 Giga Hertz can handle day to day applications calmly. The performance is good and 1GB RAM is enough for multitasking although it may experience some lag while handling heavy applications.

The Emotion skin does not have a separate app drawer and all the applications are present on the home screen itself. It has a lot of customizable themes and widgets which can be used as per the user’s convenience. Other handy features include a one-touch button to clear all the recent applications and flip to mute. It has an inbuilt power saver which can be switched on from the settings menu.

The Honor Bee has 8 GB internal storage, which is expandable up to 32 GB. Apps cannot be directly installed on the SD card and it lacks an OTG cable support.

Camera and Multimedia

It has a good 8 MP, 3264 x 2448 pixels primary camera with autofocus and dual LED flash. The rear camera is adequate enough for taking quality images under ambient light. The dual LED flash enables to capture decent images in low light too. It can record 1080p videos at 30fps which are quite impressive for this segment. The 2 MP front camera is good for selfies and video calls. Other features include Geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection and panorama mode.

Huawei Honor Bee has 8MP rear camera & 2MP Front Camera

The music player has bass boost and 3D effects with good sound quality both in loudspeaker and headset.

Connectivity and Battery

Yes, it is a Dual SIM phone with 3G support in both slots, but the 3G can be used only in one of the SIMs at a time. The SIM manager option lets you set the default SIM for calls and data. The device has A class GPS and Bluetooth v4, A2DP, LE. Other connectivity features include Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot and FM radio.

Powered by a standard Li-Ion 1730 mAH battery the Honor Bee claims to have a battery usage of around 18 hours under normal usage which is quite common with all the other Smartphone’s today.

Huawei Honor Bee Price Analysis

This smartphone has launched in May 2015. Its price at the time of launch was around INR. 5,000/-. As is the case with other smartphones, the price has crashed by 10%. This mobile is only available at Flipkart and it is giving the best price of Huawei Honor Bee at INR. 4,499/-. Pricejugaad forecasts that there is no change in the price in next 4 weeks.

The Verdict

The Honor Bee offers a fair set of specifications with good Features camera, storage and battery life. It has charming looks compared to its other competitors like Micromax Canvas Spark 2 and Nokia Lumia 630. It is now available in the price range of 3999 to 4499. The decent performance and features are unmatched at this price range. Huawei Honor Bee scored 66 for its features & 62 for its reviews on PriceJugaad.com which is pretty impressive considering its price range. Buying Honor bee is a good deal if your budget is less as it gives you better features at this price range.